Planetary securityPeru reopens UFO investigation office

The Peruvian air force announced it would reopen the office in charge of looking into UFOs as a result of “increased sightings of anomalous aerial phenomena” in the country’s skies.

The air force’s Departamento de Investigación de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos (DIFAA) was established in 2001, but was closed in 2008. Colonel Julio Vucetich, head of the air force’s aerospace interests division, said that DIFAA was being revived after lying formant for five years because more UFO sightings have been reported to the media.

Vucetich told the Guardian that the unit will bring together sociologists, archaeologists, astronomers, meteorologists, and air force personnel to analyze these events. “Many people don’t report UFO sightings because they fear they will be labeled mad or made fun of, but nowadays with new technology — cellphone videos, Facebook, Twitter — they can be much more open, without feeling that they are the only ones who have seen what they’ve seen,” he said.

“This new office needs those people to come and report their sightings so we can open a file and, using their information, do the respective analysis and investigation,” he added, showing a reporter a hefty scrapbook of newspaper cuttings recording Peruvian UFO sightings dating from 1950 to the present day. Instituto de Estudios Histórico Aeroespaciales del Perú (IEHAP) is editing the scrapbook and will turn it into a book.

Vucetich said the office had responded to increased sightings of natural and artificial phenomena, from meteorites to “space junk” in Peru. “When you present evidence of UFOs, people can react with terror or hysteria, so we have to be very careful how we present it,” he told the Guardian.

“There are various locations in Peru where there are regular sightings. What’s bad is that those reports have never been proven so I can’t, on behalf of the air force, verify those,” he added said.

He noted that he, too, had seen what he could only describe as “anomalous aerial phenomena.”

“On a personal basis, it’s evident to me that we are not alone in this world or universe.”

The UFO office has a telephone hotline, an e-mail address ([email protected]), and a Web site for reporting UFO sightings.

Peru is not the only Latin American country showing renewed interest in UFOs. The Guardian notes that last week, Antonio Huneeus, a Chilean UFO investigator, told Open Minds UFO Radio that the Peruvian move responded to greater interest in such phenomena in the region.

“There are a few cultural reasons too, the public is more open-minded about the phenomenon of UFOs,” he added.